You gotta pick your web platform wisely. Even though we live and breathe it every day, I am blown away at how complex the environment has become. The lines are blurred between content management, blog, wiki, personalization and more. Then you throw into the mix RSS, folksonomies, taxonomies, schmaxonomies, workflow, scalability, integration, API extensibility and so much more.
If I were you, would I even know how to ask the right question on where to start? Believe me, it’s tough enough to keep it all straight for anyone. You just have to ask yourself a few things:
- Am I a blog or a web site?
- If both, how are they positioned to my consumers?
- Where do I update my site now?
- Where should I update my content?
- Who contributes?
- Will I be interacting with communities?
- How disorganized can I really afford to be? None!
- How will my consumers consume my content?
- Have I really thought about how they COULD consume content?
- Which side of the new-web, old-web chasm am I on now?
I am scratching my head tonight because sometimes it is just darn difficult to get all of the points across in the least complex way. With the lines blurring again, we need to be super careful on the platforms we choose. I did not mention branding in my list simply because if the platform cannot render your brand online to the pixel, then it’s out. With so many platforms to choose from today, why sacrifice that one?
The bottom line is that so many of us do a great job talking to each other about what we do and why we think it is important. But, we have to speak in YOUR language. We are in business to serve you, and to be your coach when you need one. There are great things happening, but I question if we are getting caught up in the momentum and forgetting how to communicate to those who matter most? YOU, our customers in our industry. We need to help you ask the right questions and show you the right way to start. Sure, the technology is easier, faster and less costly than it used to be. But, the way your consumers are consuming (content) is much, much different than it was not so long ago, which in some ways counters easy, fast and cheap.
Drupal, WordPress, Social Text, Confluence, Mediawiki…. Dazed and Confused? You should be… because these are important decisions to be made.